The headlines didn't exactly jump off the page: "BioCryst's Zika drug shows promise in mice." Big deal. All kinds of companies and research labs are feverishly looking at ways to treat or prevent Zika, should it become endemic to large parts of the United States this summer.

But this one stuck out as especially interesting. Why? Because there are two striking similarities in how the company's pre-clinical drug candidate BCX443 works in mice, and how Gilead's Sovaldi — the "$1,000-per-day pill" that finally cured hepatitis C — work.

First, Zika and hepatitis C are both in the flaviviridae family of viruses, which also includes yellow fever, Dengue and West Nile. Second, both drugs work in the same way: by preventing the virus from synthesizing new RNA, thus stopping its replication. This is pretty cool.

A number of RNA viruses carry an enzyme called RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), which is mercifully just called polymerase. The enzyme has only one function: to take RNA fragments, which are called base pairs, and make a string of about 600 of them hooked together. This "string" then becomes the genetic material of a newly-formed virus, which will then repeat the process.

This is one of roughly a dozen steps that is required for the virus to replicate itself, and is the same step that Sovaldi uses to bring hepatitis C replication to a screeching halt. The following picture is the structure of hepatitis C polymerase bound to an inhibitor. The method used to solve these structures is called x-ray crystallography (the "Cryst" part of the company's name).

HCV polymerase bound to an inhibitor. Source: Protein Data Bank.

The really important question is: Will this drug work against Zika? Only a fool would predict the chances of success of a drug that hasn't even been tested in a single human, but this one has more going for it than most. Here's why:

The same concept worked spectacularly for Sovaldi

Zika and HCV are in the same family

Unlike other diseases, mouse models of infection are usually pretty good at predicting success in people

Perhaps just as important, I recently consulted vaccine and infectious disease expert, Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (also a former trustee here at The Council). He said that it would take years to develop a vaccine for Zika.

If there is a piece of wood nearby, perhaps you should knock it — and then wish BioCryst the best of luck.

Dr. Josh Bloom, the Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, comes from the world of drug discovery, where he did research for more than 20 years. The field of drug discovery involves chemistry, biochemistry, toxicology, and pharmacology - skills that he has used to write on a wide variety of topics since he joined ACSH in 2010. One of the topics he has tackled is the so-called "opioid crisis." He is now recognized as an expert in this area and was the first journalist to write a nationally published opinion piece about the unintended consequences of a governmental crackdown on prescription pain medications (New York Post, 2013). Since that time he has published more than 20 op-eds in regional and national newspapers on different aspects of the crisis. In that same year, he testified at an FDA hearing, where he noted that fentanyl was the real danger, something that would be proven years later. At that time almost no one had heard of the drug.

He was also the first writer (2016) to study, dissect and ultimately debunk the manipulated statistics used by the CDC to justify its recommendations for opioid prescribing, which have resulted in Draconian requirements for prescribing pain medications as well as government-mandated, involuntary tapering of patients receiving opioid treatment, both of which have caused great harm and needless suffering to chronic pain patients. His 2016 article, "Six Charts Designed to Confuse You," is the seminal work on CDC deception and has been adopted by patient advocacy groups and individuals and has been sent to governors and state legislatures.

Dr. Bloom earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Virginia, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania. His career in drug discovery research began at Lederle Laboratories, which was acquired by Wyeth in 1994, which itself was acquired by Pfizer in 2009. During this time he participated in research in a number of therapeutic areas, including diabetes and obesity, antibiotics, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and oncology. His group discovered the novel antibiotic Tygacil®, which was approved by the FDA for use against resistant bacterial infections in 2005. He is the author of 25 patents, and 35 academic papers, including a chapter on new therapies for hepatitis C in Burger’s Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Discovery and Development, 7th Edition (Wiley, 2010), and has given numerous invited lectures about how the pharmaceutical industry really works.

Dr. Bloom joined the American Council on Science and Health in 2010 as ACSH’s Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and has since published more than 60 op-eds in numerous periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, New Scientist, The New York Post, National Review Online, The Boston Herald, and The Chicago Tribune, and given numerous radio and television interview on topics related to drugs and chemicals. In 2014, Dr. Bloom was invited to become a featured writer for the site Science 2.0, where he wrote more 75 pieces on a broad range of topics.

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